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“I have no time to write my book.”

I hear people moaning about this all the time.

It reminds me of a study by the wedding industry. They found that the average woman invests 100 hours a month planning her wedding, for several months. (And yes, it was mainly women who spent this time planning the event. The men who participated were far less involved in the details.)

Just think: 100 hours a month equals about 25 hours a week. That’s almost a full-time job, considering that Americans work an average of 34.4 hours a week.

Now a wedding is obviously an important life event, and it’s a personal choice how much time anyone devotes to planning their big day.

But after all that planning, the event is over in a few hours, and you are left with the photos and memories, and a stack of bills.

Now think about what else you could accomplish in 100 hours a month.

You could write a wellness book – actually in far less time.

Here’s how.

Most people can easily write 750 words in less than an hour. You could write a blog post, or a long Facebook message to a friend in that time (without going back to edit for language or grammar.)

So if you could write 750 words, 5 days a week, you would have 3750 words in a week.
*In just 2 weeks, you would have 7,500 words – the first draft of a short book of 60-80 pages.

Now let’s say you could write for 1– 1.5 hours a day, 5 days a week.
You could write 1000 words a day in that time, which comes to 5,000 words a week.
*In just 4 weeks, you would have 20,000 words, or a mid-sized book of 125 pages.
*In 8 weeks, you’d have 40,000 words, or 200 pages – a full sized book!

An even quicker way is to record your book.

Most people speak an average of 100 words a minute. In one hour you could record 6000 words, which is about 60 pages.

In 2 hours of speaking you could have 12,000 words, or about 100 pages.
Imagine that!

You could record your whole first draft in a weekend, or write your first draft in 1/5 of the time the average bride spends on her wedding.

Look, we all have the same number of hours in a day, and days in a week. But your days are numbered…because you decide what to do with that time.

If writing your book is important to you, what can you reorganize in your life, or give up for a short time, to create the first draft of your book?

Can you nix Netflix for two weeks? Get up one hour earlier for 2 weeks to work on your book? Forego a weekend activity (for just two weekends?)

I’ve written 44 books, and I’m still writing. When I began I was writing three books a year, teaching full-time at the college level, and had two children under six years old.

I won’t pretend it was easy, but it was meaningful and exciting, and I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.
I think it also inspired my two daughters to go after their dreams.

So what will you do with the number of days you have?

What’s one thing you could do to free up some time for your book? Add your response in the comments below! 
1) Watch one hour less of TV per night
2) Get up one hour earlier for 8 weeks
3) Give up one weekend activity for 2 weekends
4) Something else?

***

Guest Author Bio: Lynda Goldman is the #1 bestselling author of ‘Write to Heal: 7 Steps to Write and Publish a Wellness Book. ’ She is the author of 44 books, and has been published by three major publishers. Lynda provides courses, coaching and masterminds on how to write a book, for healers, coaches and entrepreneurs. You can learn more about her work and writing at www.WellnessInk.com